Antheus (son of Assesus)

Antheus ( ancient Greek Ἀνϑεύς ) is a handsome young man and friend of Hermes in Greek mythology . He lived as a hostage at the court of the Milesian king Phobios, a son of the Neleiden Hippocles.

Cleoboia, Phobios's wife, fell in love with the youth, but he always avoided her with excuses. Offended, she thought about revenge and threw a partridge or a gold vessel into a well and asked the agile Antheus to climb into the well. She cut the rope and threw a heavy stone at the defenseless, who died on it. Having become even more insane after her act, she hanged herself. When Phobios heard the story, he transferred the kingdom to Phrygios.

source

• Parthenios of Nikaia : Love Stories 14

literature

• Otto Jessen : Antheus 6 . In: Paulys Realencyclopadie der classischen Antiquity Science (RE). Volume I, 2, Stuttgart 1894, Col. 2376.
• Adolf Schirmer : Antheus 5 . In: Wilhelm Heinrich Roscher (Hrsg.): Detailed lexicon of Greek and Roman mythology . Volume 1.1, Leipzig 1886, column 370 ( digitized version ).